


coming together

by werealldreaming



Series: cosmere cat café [3]
Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat Cafés, Family Reunions, Fluff, Gen, Tien (Stormlight Archive) Lives, renarin meets glys too it's very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 13:38:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20818166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werealldreaming/pseuds/werealldreaming
Summary: Renarin's not really sure how Tien knows Kaladin, or why he seems incredibly upset when he finds out that Kaladin also frequents the café, but maybe they'll run into each other.orA first meeting, a reunion, and a case of mistaken identity. Not in that order.





	coming together

It’s a Friday afternoon, and the cat café is a little busier than Renarin is used to. There’s a mother with three small children that he’s avoiding as much as possible, as well as the usual few college students with their laptops.

He’s finishing up explaining how to use one of their dangling-feather toys to a pair of little girls when he sees Syl leap off her perch on a mounted shelf and bolt towards the entrance to the room. Renarin smiles.

“Hey, Kaladin,” he calls.

He doesn’t respond, and Renarin looks up, confused. That’s not how this usually goes, so why—oh. That’s not Kaladin.

Tien is standing a few steps into the room, with a strange expression on his face. Syl seems to have realized her mistake as well, and is sulking next to the wall a few feet away.

Renarin opens his mouth to apologize, but Tien speaks before he can. “Did—did you say Kaladin?”

“Yeah, I thought you were someone else. Syl really likes one of our other regulars, so I thought you were him.”

Tien rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, looking somewhat lost. Renarin’s never seen him like this before, and it leaves his just as unsure what to do. The café is usually a place to relax, not to get more upset.

They stand there for several moments before Tien finally asks, “Can I meet him?”

“What?”

“Kaladin. I might know… I want to meet him. Please.”

Renarin hesitates. He’s not really sure of the rules of this scenario—he’s not supposed to give out his coworkers’ schedules, but what about customers? But he knows and trusts Tien, and he looks desperate in a way that scares him a little bit. “He usually comes on Saturday afternoons,” he says. “I don’t really know anything else about contacting him personally.”

Tien nods, takes a deep breath, and smiles slightly. “Thank you.” He moves over to his usual armchair and Renarin sees Fractal settle down next to his foot before he gets called away by another customer in the café.

* * *

Renarin’s surprised to see a half-covered cat cage when he walks into the backroom of the café the next morning. They hadn’t been expecting any new additions to the cats at the café that day, or any time for the next few weeks. He glances over at his manager, a young woman named Deeli, and makes a questioning noise.

“Morning, Renarin,” she says, waving. “This is Glys—he was dropped off at the shelter late last night.”

Renarin crouches down next to the cage and studies the cat. He has rosette markings like a wild cat, and his fur is a light orange. He’s a year old at the very most—he’s too small to be anything else. “Is he a Bengal?”

“Mhmm. He’s a year old, we think, but his original owner didn’t feed him _quite_ as much as he should have, so he’s a little underweight. He’s also severely undersocialized, so we’ll probably have to put a red collar on him. But all his immunizations and other health records are up to date.”

He stands and fills a dish of food for Glys, which he places a few steps outside the entrance to the cage. Then he unlocks and opens the cage. Glys snarls at him, a quiet sound that Renarin just ignores. Instead, he turns his attention to Deeli. “Can you get the collar? I’ll work on helping him feel safe enough to come out.”

She nods. “Be careful—he’s rather aggressive. Normally we wouldn’t take him until he’s a little more comfortable around people, but none of the foster families have space, and the shelter can’t spare resources either, so…”Deeli tugs at the blue ribbon in her hair, undoing and redoing the bow.

“It’s okay,” Renarin assures. Deeli likes to talk when she’s stressed, which is at least easy to identify even if he’s never really understood the behavior. “Glys will be fine.”

She nods and disappears into their supply closet. Glys has padded carefully out of the cage and is sniffing the food dish warily. Renarin settles down on the floor a short distance away and pretends not to pay attention to him.

Glys only takes a few bites of his food. Instead, he walks over to Renarin and puts both his front paws on his knee, in a begging gesture. He reaches out, careful to let Glys see his movements, and gently strokes one finger along his head.

Glys will be okay even if he struggles to socialize with others in the café, Renarin decides. He’ll make sure of it.

* * *

Renarin’s on backroom duty for most of the morning, but that day he also has an afternoon shift in the cat room. It’s not something that happens often, and he’s beginning to remember why that is.

Still, he brightens when he reenters the cat room from his break to see that Kaladin has dropped by for a visit. “Hey!” he says.

Kaladin glances up at him and smiles. “Hey! How’s your day been?”

“Good,” Renarin says. “We got a new cat, and he’s very shy and afraid around people right now, but I think he’ll adjust if he’s given enough time. Also, Syl mistook someone else for you yesterday, and it was really funny to see her reaction when she realized that she’d messed up.”

Kaladin snickers. “I can imagine.”

“How about you?” Renarin asks. “How’s your saga with Amaram going?”

He shakes his head. “Storming _Amaram_.” He sketches out his own week, the highlights and funny moments of being a pre-med major. Renarin nods along, and it’s not until he sees the door swing open for another familiar customer that he remembers something else he should have told Kaladin about.

He carefully excuses himself from the conversation and heads over to Tien, who is glancing around the room as if searching for someone. Searching for Kaladin. When he sees Renarin, his shoulders relax, and he waves.

Kaladin has been trailing several feet behind him, but when he fully recognizes who Renarin is looking at, he moves up next to him and stares.

“T-Tien?” He stumbles over the name, as if it is a physical obstacle in believing what he’s seeing. “Is that you?”

Tien meets Kaladin’s eyes, then steps forward and reaches out. His eyes are shining, and his voice is even softer than it normally is. “Kaladin. It’s been…I haven’t seen you in so long.”

They pull together into a tight embrace. Renarin stays where he is, a few feet away, unsure what to do. Syl brushes up against his shin and he crouches down to stroke her, pretending to ignore the other two. He wonders what their relationship is, and their history together. He’s never heard Kaladin mention Tien’s name, but he doesn’t presume to think Kaladin had told him everything about himself.

Syl _mrow_s and wriggles out from under his hand, then walks onto Kaladin’s shoes and settles down. Kaladin pulls back slightly and frowns down at her, and Tien just snorts and shakes his head.

“Sorry,” Renarin says, somewhat automatically.

“You don’t have to apologize,” says Tien. He smiles down at Syl, and then at Renarin. “Um. You’re probably a little bit confused right now, I’m guessing.”

He fidgets with his fingers, unsure how to respond. “Kind of. But I don’t want to pry.”

They settle down in a circle on the floor next to a window, and Syl immediately jumps into Kaladin’s lap. To Renarin’s surprise, Glys pads out from under an armchair and settles down next to him as well. Fractal is nowhere to be seen, but Renarin figures that she’s just busy playing with someone else and hasn’t noticed Tien yet.

Kaladin clears his throat. “This is my brother, Tien,” he says. Renarin frowns—that doesn’t add up with what Kaladin has told him about his family. “I’ve thought he was dead for four years.” He glances at Tien. “And you’re gonna have some explaining to do, too.”

Tien bites his lip and nods. “It’s a long story, and I won’t tell all of it here, but basically, uh, I wasn’t completely dead that day. I almost died, but I didn’t in the end. And then Amaram took me under his wing for a while, and I’ve just gotten out now that I’m in college.”

Kaladin makes a low, angry noise in the back of his throat at the mention of Amaram. Then he reaches out and brings Tien into an embrace again, and they sit like that for a long time.

Renarin knows he’s still missing some of the details—a lot of the details, in fact. He doesn’t know any of the events they’ve referenced, and he’s interacted with Amaram only once. But it doesn’t really matter. What really matters is the two brothers, and their reunion.

**Author's Note:**

> please feel free to leave a comment! i love hearing your thoughts
> 
> my [tumblr](https://ternaryflower53.tumblr.com)


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